This would be the same poll that showed the Messiah up by 15 points late last month. He’s managed to plummet since then, leading McCain 44-41% — within the margin of error.

A month after emerging victorious from the bruising Democratic nominating contest, some of Barack Obama’s glow may be fading. In the latest NEWSWEEK Poll, the Illinois senator leads Republican nominee John McCain by just 3 percentage points, 44 percent to 41 percent. The statistical dead heat is a marked change from last month’s NEWSWEEK Poll, where Obama led McCain by 15 points, 51 percent to 36 percent…

More seriously, some Obama supporters worry that the spectacle of their candidate eagerly embracing his old rival, Hillary Clinton, and traveling the country courting big donors at lavish fund-raisers, may have done lasting damage to his image as an arbiter of a new kind of politics. This is a major concern since Obama’s outsider credentials, have, in the past, played a large part in his appeal to moderate, swing voters. In the new poll, McCain leads Obama among independents 41 percent to 34 percent, with 25 percent favoring neither candidate. In June’s NEWSWEEK Poll, Obama bested McCain among independent voters, 48 percent to 36 percent.

This isn’t exactly an outlier, as the last Newsweek poll was. Gallup, Rasmussen, CNN, and McLaughlin (all in RCP’s average) all have Obama ahead by just single-digits. Rasmussen, in fact, has him ahead by just 1%.

We’ve yet to see Obama’s fundraising numbers for the month of June, but if these results are any indication, we’re not looking at the $50 million fundraisers had been hoping for.